Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives, and reigns; When they are gone, then muft I count my gains.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

Another Street:

Enter the corfe of Henry the fixth, with halberds to guard it; Lady Anne being the mourner.

Anne. Set down, fet down your honourable load,If honour may be shrouded in a hearfe,Whilft I a while obfequiously laments The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.Poor key-cold figure of a holy king! Pale afhes of the house of Lancaster!

6

Thou bloodlefs remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghoft,

To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy flaughter'd fon,
Stabb'd by the felf-fame hand that made these
wounds!

}

Lo, in these windows, that fet forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:-
O, curfed be the hand, that made these holes!
Curfed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Curfed the blood, that let this blood from hence!

1

STEEVENS,

S -obfequiously lament] Obfequious, in this inftance, means funereal. So, in Hamlet, act I. fe. ii:

"To do obfequious forrow." STEEVENS.

6

-key-cold] A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is compofed, was anciently employed to stop any flight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers; among the reft, it is ufed by Decker in his Satiromaftix:

"It is beft you hide your head, for fear your wife brains take key-cold."

Again, in the Country Girl, by T. B. 1647: "The key-cold figure of a man."

More

More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whofe ugly and unnatural afpect
May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness !

If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him,

Than I am made by my young lord, and thee!—
Come, now, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;

And, ftill as you are weary of the weight,
Reft you, whiles I lament king Henry's corfe.

Enter Glofter.

Glo. Stay you, that bear the corfe, and fet it down. Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds?

Glo. Villains, fet down the corfe; or, by faint Paul, I'll make a corfe of him that disobeys".

Gen. My lord, ftand back, and let the coffin pafs. Glo. Unmanner'd dog! stand thou when I command:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by faint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

Anne. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.-
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou had'ft but power over his mortal body,
His foul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.

• I'll make a corfe of him that disobeys.] So, in Hamlet:
“I'll make a ghost of him that lets me." JOHNSON,

Glo.

Glo. Sweet faint, for charity, be not so curst. Anne. Foul devil, for God's fake, hence, and trouble us not;

For thou haft made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with curfing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries:-7
Oh, gentlemen, fee, fee! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!-

7 pattern of thy butcheries:] Pattern is inftance, or example: JOHNSON.

Holinfhed fays: "The dead corps on the Afcenfion even was conveied with billes and glaives pompouslie (if you will call that a funerall pompe) from the Tower to the church of faint Paule, and there laid on a beire or coffen bare-faced; the fame in the prefence of the beholders did bleed; where it refted the fpace of one whole daie. From thenfe he was carried to the Black-friers, and bled there likewife; &c." STEEVENS.

8

-fee, dead Henry's wounds,

Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!-]

It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was fo much be lieved by fir Kenelm Digby that he has endeavoured to explain the reafon. JOHNSON.

So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

"The more I found his name, the more he bleeds: "This blood condemns me, and in gufhing forth Speaks as it falls, and asks me why I did it." Again, in the Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612:

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The captain will affay an old conclufion often approved; that at the murderer's fight the blood revives again and boils afresh; and every wound has a condemning voice to cry out guilty against the murderer."

Again, in the 46th Idea of Drayton :

"If the vile actors of the heinous deed,
"Near the dead body happily be brought,

"Oft t'hath been prov'd the breathless corps will bleed." Mr. Tollet obferves that this opinion feems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or Northern nations from whom we defcend; for they practifed this method of trial in dubious cases, as appears from Pitt's Atlas, in Sweden, p. 20. STEEVENS.

See alfo Demonologie, 4to. 1603, p. 79; and Goulart's Admirable and Memorable Hiftories, tranflated by Grimeton, 4to. 1607, p. 422. EDITOR.

Blush,

Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman, and unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.

O God, which this blood mad'ft, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink'ft, revenge his death!
Either, heaven, with lightning ftrike the murderer
dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou doft fwallow up this good king's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!
Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, bleffing for curfes.
Anne. Villain, thou know'ft no law of God nor

man;

No beast fo fierce, but knows fome touch of pity.
Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Glo. More wonderful, when angels are fo
angry.
Vouchfafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed evils, to give me leave,
By circumftance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchfafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curfe thy curfed felf.

Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

• Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe, diffus'd in this place fignifies irregular, uncouth; such is its meaning in other paffages of Shakspeare. JOHNSON.

Diffus'd infection of a man may mean, thou that art as dangerous as á peftilence, that infects the air by its diffufion. Diffus'd may, however, mean irregular. So, in The Merry Wives, &c. -rush at once

66

"With some diffused fong."

Again, in Green's Farewell to Follie, 1617:

"I have seen an English gentleman fo defufed in his futes; his doublet being for the weare of Caftile, his hose for Venice, &c." STEEVENS,

Anne,

I

J

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canft make

No excufe current, but to hang thyself.

Glo. By fuch despair, I fhould accuse myself.
Anne. And, by despairing, fhalt thou stand excus'd
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
That didst unworthy flaughter upon others.
Glo. Say, that I flew them not?
Anne. Then say, they were not flain:
But dead they are, and, devilish flave, by thee.
Glo. I did not kill your husband.
Anne. Why, then he is alive.

Glo. Nay, he is dead; and flain by Edward's hand. Anne. In thy foul throat thou ly'ft; queen Margaret faw

Thy murderous faulchion smoking in his blood;
The which thou once didft bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat afide the point.

Glo. I was provoked by her fland'rous tongue,
*That laid their guilt upon my guiltlefs fhoulders.

Anne. Thou waft provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
Didst thou not kill this king?

Glo. I grant ye.

Anne. Doft grant me, hedge-hog? then, God grant

me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous 2.

Glo. The fitter for the King of heaven that hath him.

▾ That laid their guilt- -] The crime of my brothers. He has juft charged the murder of lady Anne's husband upon Ed, ward. JOHNSON,

O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
Glo. The fitter for the king of heaven, &c.]
So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

I'll do't: but yet fhe is a goodly creature.

"Dion. The fitter then the gods should have her." STEEVENS.

Anne.